Working Boat, Venice, 2010

HDR Image, F/16, 41mm

Theories of Time and Space, by Natasha Trethewey

You can get there from here, though

there's no going home.

Everywhere you go will be somewhere

you've never been. Try this:

head south on Mississippi 49, one-

by-one mile markers ticking off

another minute of your life. Follow this

to its natural conclusion – dead end

at the coast, the pier at Gulfport where

riggings of shrimp boats are loose stitches

in a sky threatening rain. Cross over

the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand

dumped on the mangrove swamp – buried

terrain of the past. Bring only

what you must carry – tome of memory,

its random blank pages. On the dock

where you board the boat for Ship Island,

someone will take your picture:

the photograph – who you were—

will be waiting when you return.

"Theories of Time and Space" by Natasha Trethewey, from Native Guard. © Houghton Mifflin, 2006

Avalanche Creek, Glacier National Park

The three photos used to develop these HDR images were created on August 20, 2010, on a hike from the Avalanche Lake Campground to the lake. it's a well developed, highly used trail following the creek to its source.
They were created using Photomatix, slightly modified in  iPhoto.

It was created from three exposures bracketed around the main image:
Shutter: 1/8
Aperture: f/16
Focal length: 59mm

This one used three photos bracketed around this exposure:

Shutter: 1.3

Aperture: f/16

Focal length: 17mm

Glacier National Park

We came across this mother/child (nanny/kid?) on a well used hiking path from Logan Pass to the Hidden Lake Viewpoint.  Because the area is so heavily used by us humans, the wildlife tend to go about their business, ignoring us as long as we stay ten feet away or so. Oddly, this affords a great opportunity to observe wildlife in their natural, daily routines.

I swear the kid is giving her mom a smooch, but was told by someone else its a cleansing behavior?

Butte, Old Town Signs

I love the  painted signs on building walls of Old Town, Butte, Montana.  
I shot these August 13 and 14, 2010, while there for the An Ri Ra Festival  

Paris, Quai St. Michel

May 25, 2010

A near-midnight walk along the Seine It's a pretty simple shot, with minimal doctoring in iPhoto. Its couple clusters and soft light capture a bit of that romance associated with Paris nights. I like the bike, alone. One of the stories in there.

Canon 40D with a fixed 50 mm f/1.4 Canon lens

Monopod

Shutter: 1/15

Aperture: f/1.4

ISO: 320

Luxembourg Gardens

(This is an edit of an earlier post. I decided to use a 2-exposure HDR, rather than the 3-exposure posted earlier. I think it gives richer colors and better focus--without inhibiting the artificiality of the scene)

I have been playing with High Dynamic Range imaging (HDR) to capture the luminescence in both the bright and shadowy part of a scene. Sometimes the results can look "painterly," as some commenters have noted. Sometimes it can look otherworldly--unreal. This picture, the product of two bracketed shots, was taken of a grassy area in front of a sunny area--all in the Luxembourg Gardens. I think I like the way the picnickers seem to have been dropped into a scene they really don't belong in.